Abstract

This article forms part of a greater study which looks at the relationship between women and cloth in Classical Myth. Cloth as substance is poised between the realm of domesticity and family life and the realm of the arcane and the magical. Cloth as metaphor evokes feminine virtue, industry and fidelity as well as incantation, spellbinding, and entrapment. The metaphor of weaving or spinning is closely connected with plotting, poetry the art of generating narratives as textile becomes synonymous with text. This paper examines the motif of cloth and the motives behind its production and preparation in the story of Deianeira and the death of Heracles in Sophocles' Women of Trachis.